Prékopa Ágnes (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 31. (Budapest, 2017)
Zsuzsa MARGITTAL: La Fontaine’s Fables and Other Animal Tales in the Budapest Museum of Applied Arts’ Collection
work in the Museum of Applied Arts in 1900.25 Not only this show, but contemporary design publications dealing with Walter Crane26 called attention to the work of this British artist and his role in the field of children’s book illustration. Contemporaries praised the work of not only British but French illustrators; thus storybooks illustrated by the aforementioned Monvel are also among the early acquisitions.27 Because of its significance in the history of bookbinding and the illustrations the book contains, a version of Aesop’s fables illustrated by Arthur Rackham and bound by Maria Jaschikné Müller deserves mention. Jaschikné used colourful leather binding decorated with a scene from ‘The Raven and the Fox’ (Le corbeau et le renard, 1/2) (inv. no. 86.170.1).28 In his own theoretical writings, Álmos Jaschik described how the works of Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac served as an example for him. He offered particular praise for their consideration of reproduction techniques, noting how they further refined the colours during the reproduction process and did not assign impossible tasks to the technicians.29 The same can be said for Walter Crane, who considered himself fortunate to have Edmund Evans acquaint him with the important technical details of the reproduction process.30 A Frog He Would A-Wooing Go: depictions on paper, textiles and ceramics The Museum of Applied Arts also owns objects depicting non-moralizing animal tales. Of particular note is the story of the frog wishing to marry (‘A Frog He Would A- Wooing Go’), scenes of which appear on several of the museum’s objects. But first, we should turn our attention to The Hey Diddle Diddle Picture Book, a copy of which the museum acquired in 1899.31 Illustrated by Randolph Caldecott and engraved by Edmund Evans, it contains the story of the frog wishing to marry, and the illustrations to it served as the prototypes for the depictions discussed below.32 The collaboration of the two artists is significant because according to a contemporary account, Evans prodded Caldecott, who originally worked as a caricaturist for magazines, to take up storybook illustration.33 In 1865 Evans began working for Routledge and Warne and together they created so-called toy books.34 In 1878 Evans approached Caldecott with the concrete proposal of making picture books.35 Scenes from ‘A Frog He Would A-Wooing Go’ also appear on a set of six handkerchiefs in the museum’s textile collection.36 Each handkerchief has a pattern of varying geometric shapes along its edges and depicts a different scene: the frog in his parents’ home; meeting the rat; visiting Miss Mousey (lunch/eating); visiting Miss Mousey (conversing); visiting miss Mousey (merrymaking); the attack of the cats. As mentioned above, the direct source for the depictions were Caldecott’s illustrations, first published in a separate volume by Routledge in 1883 and then later in the anthology of rhymes discussed above (The Hey Diddle, Diddle Picture Book), with all the rhymes illustrated by Caldecott and engraved by Evans (Figs. 10-11). Evans was responsible for the colour reproductions of drawings by the three masters of storybook illustration (Randolph Caldecott, Walter Crane and Kate Greenaway, referred to as Academicians of the Nursery).37 Illustrations by all three artists frequently appeared on printed textiles of the period, which were not necessarily made for children or nurseries.38 It is not surprising, therefore, that Caldecott’s illustrations were used on printed 47
